The present disclosure relates to a head cleaning mechanism including a recording head having an ink ejection port for ejecting ink to a recording medium such as a paper sheet, and to an inkjet recording apparatus including the head cleaning mechanism.
The inkjet recording apparatus can form a high definition images, and it is widely used as a recording apparatus such as a facsimile, a copier, or a printer.
In the inkjet recording apparatus, micro ink droplets (hereinafter referred to as mist) ejected together with ink droplets for recording an image and rebound mist generated when the ink droplets are adhered to the recording medium may be adhered and hardened to the ink ejection surface of the recording head. As the mist on the ink ejection surface is gradually increased and overlaps the ink ejection port, deterioration of ink ejection straightness (bending flying), non-ejection, or the like may occur, and printing performance of the recording head may be deteriorated.
Therefore, in order to clean the ink ejection surface of the recording head, there is known an inkjet recording apparatus in which a plurality of cleaning liquid supply ports are disposed in a part outside the ink ejection region in which a plurality of ink ejection ports are formed (a part on an upstream side in a wiping direction of a wiper) in the ink ejection surface. In this inkjet recording apparatus, after supplying cleaning liquid from the cleaning liquid supply port, the wiper is moved along the ink ejection surface from outside of the cleaning liquid supply port, so that the wiper can wipe the ink ejection surface while holding the cleaning liquid. In this way, a recording head recovery process can be performed.